The pain of Manchester United’s comprehensive Champions League final defeat to Barcelona in May triggered a summer of upheaval at Old Trafford with star turns Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez seeking pastures new – but despite those defections the Premier League champions are still rightly among the leading fancies to land this season’s European crown.

During preparations for their opening Group B clash away to Turkish champions Besiktas, Red Rants caught up with United’s colossal defender Nemanja Vidic (arguably one of Ferguson’s best buys in the last 4 years) to find out what he makes of the new-look United and the prospects of Sir Alex Ferguson’s outfit reaching a third successive Champions League final…

Continue reading “Exclusive: The Nemanja Vidic Interview”

Chris Toy (Studs Up) recently interviewed David Prosperi, Vice President (Global Public Relations) at Aon. It’s an interesting read and it’s nice to see how Manchester United is viewed from outside football i.e. once you take away football partisanship.

For those of us who have supported the club from before 99 or even before the Premier League started (I got in at ‘94), it’s quite amazing to see United completely dominate English football for the best part of two decades and as a result become the most popular and most valuable sports team in the world.

It’s good to focus on the here and now and we’ve seen with Liverpool how ‘past glories’ get you nowhere, but once in a while it’s good to step back and get some perspective on what United, and to a great extent, what the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and (Sir) Ryan Giggs have achieved.

In any case, here’s the interview with David Prosperi (Aon).

Red Rants welcomes Rob Smyth, formerly of the Guardian, who is currently a freelancer. He is also a Manchester United fan, so I took the chance to catch up with him and thank him for taking out time from his busy schedule. This interview was done a week ago so some of the answers may not fit in with the current state of affairs. But here you go:

Continue reading “Interview with Rob Smyth”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Some footballers are remembered for their statistics. Goals scored / games played, clean sheets, the number of titles won, personal milestones, international honours, and then some. Over time, legends are built and reputations are dismantled over numbers, because after a while, the memory fades and numbers are all that remain.

Others – a select few – are remembered for different reasons. Fans remember them because of how they served the club, unflinching devotion off the pitch, selfless service on it. These are players who etch a place for themselves in the history books by sheer effort and loyalty to the club. That’s not all there is to it, of course – the legend needs memorable highlights, and more often than not, these players provide ample highlights.

So it is with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, or as we know him, 20LEGEND. Whether it’s the 99′ final or the 4 goals in 12 minutes, the hair-raising reception at his return from injury that swept a 75,000 strong stadium to its feet or the songs sung in his absence, Solskjaer was a hero to all United fans, and he will be fondly remembered for a long, long time as the model United player.

Adrian Clarke caught up with Mr Solskjaer to discuss his time at Manchester United and how the club has evolved since he first signed on.

Continue reading “Interview with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a true (20)Legend”

Morning all. Another day goes as we build up towards the clash against Arsenal. Today we thought we could let in an Arsenal fan’s view about his team and thoughts ahead of the match. So I happened to catch up with Arseblogger of Arseblog, who is among the who’s who as far as Arsenal blogs go.

He was gracious enough to set apart some time for agreeing to an interview and answered my questions. Thanks Arseblogger.

So read on to see views from the other side.

Continue reading “The Arsenal View: Blog Chat With Arseblogger”

Morning all. Big game today. Especially important after seeing the ‘dippers drop points against Birmingham. Finally they seem to be getting results like the Liverpool we know. Arsenal are still motoring along, unbeaten, but then they were playing Derby.

Anyway, ideally, a preview should have been in order. But, instead, I decided to have a small change this time round. Read on to find out.

Continue reading “Blog Chat: Scott of Republik of Mancunia | Chelsea Preview”